Familiar Shared Loneliness: Walking Dead
by Strangerthanstrange
Summary: Short story about Michonne and Rick Grimes growing relationship throughout the epidemic; love, romance, hate, depression, and other adult themes to be worried about
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I have been in deep love with Michonne and Rick for a while now. I can definitely see the two of them hitching up and hope to see it in the new season. This is just a short story about their relationship and their own personal progression throughout the epidemic. Takes place during season three and season four but mostly season three.**

**Disclaimer: I kindly leave this to Mr. Kirkman and all the other amazing minds behind the making of AMC's the Walking Dead; I only play around some!**

**Familiar Shared Loneliness: Walking Dead**

**::**

This new world, this brand new life had changed Rick Grimes, truly not for the better. He'd always been there for anyone who was in need of help or assistance, always, but he was different and Hershel, Daryl and all the others recognized the awful sudden change. It was like a light had been flicked down in the opposited direction inside his very head. It was sad to see it, but sadly, Officer Friendly had lost his mind to the reanimated world that had surrounded them long before Lori had passed.

He had his moments, several startling moments when he would cry out loud at the open air, in to the large open space full of complete nothing and just bust out in a crazy, almost uncontrollable rage. Nobody had any idea what he was constantly shouting at or what he had seen, but they all knew he was quickly leaning over the very edge of his sanity.

That was until he'd met a katana-wielding woman, skinny and slim, dirty and wet from the southern sun's harmful heat rays. He found her standing on the outside of the prison, behind the gate, right in the midst of reanimated men and women, drooling, constantly drooling for a taste of her dark flesh.

Carl cried for Rick to assist her, when he saw her struggle to keep the walkers from digging their rotten teeth in to her skin.

Right in that very moment, Rick's mind began to awaken, crawling up from the dark depths of his tormented thoughts and ideas. He still held his pistol in his sweaty grip, brows furrowed and eyes fixated on the needy woman.

Could he really save her? In the position he was in, could Rick truly save this unfamiliar and strikingly beautiful woman from the limping walkers?

His boy continued to shoot and call out and that's when Rick's slow-moving legs began to move faster until he had fallen in to a quickened jog towards the guickly growing herd of flesh-eaters, surrounding the nearly defenseless woman.

Rick recalled throwing a few words Carl's way but his heart was beating so fast and his mind was racing so crazy, he had no clue what those few words were, but he continued to fire his pistol at the walkers, knocking them clean off their feet whilst the woman did her best to keep them off with her slow-moving katana. Rick noticed her wound when she struggled to contribute to the walker killing. He had to hurry before the scent of her blood had them walkers running at her.

He aimed shakily and shot and clearly managed to get most of them dead and as soon as he neared the gates, he pushed them open with a muffled grunt and rushed to shield her when she had fallen to the ground.

His eyes looked down at her a few times and then back up at the walkers. Hershel's voice had been heard over the pounding of his heart and voices in his head, Rick was lucky, Michonne was lucky.

**.**

Hershel got the startled, speechless woman stitched up from the bullet wound on her left thigh and quietly removed himself from the room, with her kind 'thank you' running through his thoughts. That gave Rick time to talk and Daryl time to defend if needed.

Rick was almost scared to talk, but he managed successfully without a struggle as he placed each hand on his two hips, eyes locked on to hers. He talked for a good five or so minutes before leaving her locked up in her own pair of four walls. Damn, was she pissed beyond words at the man, who she knew saved her life.

**.**

As time proceeded to go on, Rick's tormented mind wandered off severely in to uncharted waters, that he knew nobody could swim but that woman, she continued to positively shock him every single day with the things she's done and still resumes to do. He thinks back at the first time he saw her time after time, and recalls the intense feeling he had in his gut, that had nearly saved him from his own desperate mind.

Michonne grew to respect Rick greatly and all the others, but she had a strange connection with Rick, she knew about it and so had he.

Sadly, Rick still loses all sense of reality and control of his emotions; he's found crying and torn in his cell, once every week. He struggled in this life, but he's struggled more from the loss of Lori and it didn't help that he knew Carl had to put her down. Fuck, life was a damn bitch, that only truly had a knack for being a total bitch. Michonne found him distraught a few times in his cell that wasn't that far from hers, she would invite herself inside, look down at him as he held his head in what seemed like shame and tell him things, things about her. He'd been the only one she's told anything to, he was the one that saved her after all, and she should give him something, so she gave him a little history.

She told Rick who she was before the world turned to hell, and how she continues to see and hear her lost lover, Ty.

Michonne wanted to know that he wasn't alone. She's heard him cry out to a strange, not seen with the naked eye kind of force, and he's witnessed her react to the similar force. Their relationship had grown intensely as each day continued to wiggle on by.

His head propped up again and those blue wandering eyes gazed across hers like a little child. Michonne's full lips cracked a kind smile and so had Rick's.

**::**

**E/N: I am sure that was as good as I can get the beginning chapter, please stay around and wait for the next update. My laptop has been on hiatus for what seems like a century, so don't be sad when it stops to say goodbye again. Hope it was enjoyable!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: In this update, Rick might end up getting a little more inadequate with the rest of them; he's totally on the very edge of sanity, so let's all prepare for the worst! Only playing, but he's still going to lose a bit! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I proudly leave these characters, settings, everything to the wonderful Mr. Kirkman and all the other masterbrains behind AMC's the Walking Dead!**

Tears trickled down his dirt coated cheeks; he struggled to breathe, struggled to keep the beating of his heart calm and under control. He saw her again, she was beautiful and smiling. God, how he missed every little thing she had once done; he couldn't stop the tears from falling, as he lay wearily awake in his cot, staring out at Lori's lovely face.

"Don't go," he pleaded, his voice low and tormented. His hands reached out to grab her, but she was gone before he had time to realise she was never really there.

Rick rolled flat on to his back, brought his hands close to his face and hovered them above his eyes, watching them shake and tremble, the sweat cold and sticky as he covered his wet face to cry.

**.**

Daryl and Rick went on another supply hunt just before late noon came around. The southern sun above was hot and the kisses it gave burned their flesh red.

"Don't forget 'bout the pills," Daryl called out to Rick, who was busy withering away in his own disoriented thoughts, near the baby diapers and leftover wipes, whilst Daryl was packing his own tote full of canned foods and drinkables. Rick gave Daryl a late nod of the head as he was caught leaned over, staring at the silent Officer.

Finally, as late afternoon swept up overhead, they trudged on back to the truck waiting outside the nameless grocery store. The Dixon was worried about Rick's condition and thought up the worst scenarios of what would happen if he continued to stroll down the path of insanity. He took Rick's bag and along with his, he tossed them in the back seats, and took the wheel, watching Rick's careful steps through the door.

He shoved in the key, started the baby up and drove off like a maniac, with hands beyond sweaty from the southern heat gripping the wheel.

Once the two entered the gates and put the vehicle in park, Daryl jumped out and retrieved the bags. His eyes had been on Rick the entire stroll in to the city. Hershel, along with Beth with Judith wrapped in her arms, stood out and waited to take the bags. Daryl handed them over and just before he left, the farmer had whispered some secrecy in to his passing ear. He wasn't going to repeat it to himself or to anyone; he kept it locked in a box. Lunch was served, and lunch was finished in a matter of short quiet minutes. No one truly talked much anymore, unless it was something everyone needed to be in on.

Judith cried and it startled Carl. "Can I hold her?" Carl walked toward Beth, sitting at the table and she brought her eyes up to meet his. She didn't acknowledge him with words; she motioned over to Rick near the entrance of the new lunch hall with a bob of her head and she stood up and handed her over.

Carl got the idea and held her securely before bringing her to daddy. She still cried and cried, but as soon as her little eyes met Rick's, she automatically calmed.

Rick swallowed, eyes on Carl then his baby girl. His hands were shaking and his lips were quivering, attempting to smile and he took her in his arms, and embraced her little wiggling form. The others surely took notice of his interaction; it was a beautiful sight. All Rick truly needed was love, his boy, his little girl and the others that were more than eager to give him all their love. He wasn't alone, no one was in the prison. They had each other. Michonne stood back in the corner of the room, arms crossed against her breasts, eyes curiously wandering.

Rick acknowledged her from afar, eyes dancing across her form.

.

Nighttime eventually came right around the corner, sneaking up on them like a sly stalker in the wood. Beth sang Judith to sleep, Carol made sure all the infected folk had water to drink, and Hershel and Maggie chatted themselves in to a sleepy stupor.

Daryl hung around outside, the few crickets chirping quietly against his skin; he thought about Merle, he thought about him terribly, thoughts full of unwanted tears, sadness that clothed him when he didn't need it. Everybody hurt in this strange world; nobody was truly happy. Happiness was just a word that people used to make the pain go away. Rick pondered on several issues; he wandered around the prison, almost aimlessly, searching for something but nothing, nothing that he knew of.

Michonne remained in her cell, cleaning her blood-splattered katana with an old rag. Nothing was silent, her thoughts were never silenced. She only craved but knew she could never obtain.

All was dark around her, and that's when she picked up on soft pitter patters of rubber soles hitting the walk way. She held her weapon tight in a fist and stalked silently towards the curtain. She jumped as soon as she recognized a dark sillouhette across the thin sheet, and then smacked it open only to find that officer staring back at her.

Her startled heart beat was loud to her ears and that's when she gave him permission to enter. His movements were slow and untrusting, but she allowed him anyway.

"I saw her, I know I saw her, I can't be fuckin' crazy, I can't be!" tears swelled up in those blue eyes of his, pink where white should be, dirty tear streaks traveling down his cheeks. Michonne backed up as he moved forward. Her brows met in an awkward manner as she carefully sat her blade down.

He wasn't crazy, he wasn't one bit. He was just touched over and over, fondled by the cruel devilish hands of the new world growing around them. She couldn't, she wouldn't blame him. She saw things no one else could see; he wasn't alone.

"You are not crazy," her voice was low and quiet; it had to be, she wanted him to wiggle himself in to a soft kind of state. Rick held his head in his calloused hands and wept like he's never had before. Michonne knew exactly what to do, but didn't know exactly how to do it. She couldn't treat him like a child, and she couldn't treat him like a lover, but as one hand met his forearm, he looked up at her with wet eyes and wiped his nose.

All of their little touches have made such a big difference in their lives, definitely in their time of need. Rick swallowed and she watched his 'apple' bob as he swallowed a second time.

He was covered in dirt, hair and sadness. She stepped an inch close and then another. "Michonne?" his voice captured her attention, and she had been pushed out of her sensitive state. She knew better than to let her heart get involved in something so strong, in a world like this one. Rick looked down at the left over space between them, so had she.

Too quiet.

Rick looked back up at a surprised Michonne and let a tiny timid smile appear across his lips. She managed to form one as well, stronger than his.

"Goodnight," he left, and she was again there to clean her beauty of all the blood, humming to try and make all the screaming voices go away.

:**:**

**E/N: Another update, I hope it was good enough! Sorry my ending notes are so short but that's all I have to say. Thanks for all the ones who have read so far!**


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